17 hidden images in sports logos you won't be able to unsee

1. Milwaukee Brewers

We’ll start with everyone’s favorite hidden logo element. You may have seen it before, but if you haven’t, the laces on the Brewers’ logo form an M that combines with the B made by the pocket and webbing. MB. Milwaukee Brewers. Pretty awesome, isn’t it? Less awesome: The MB logo was only used from 1978-1993. The current logo contains no such magic, unless that magic is putting you to sleep.

2. Atlanta Falcons

How many times have you looked at the Falcons logo and not noticed the bird is in the shape of an F? You can be honest, this is a safe space.

3. New York Islanders

The top of the I in “Islanders” points to the exact location of Nassau Coliseum on the map of Long Island. The problem is that next year the team moves 27 miles west to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which isn’t on the current map. (It stops just west of Nassau.) This shouldn’t be hard to fix. All the logo needs is a simple cartographic shift, like when the ACC had to expand the northern reach of its map to include Boston College. And don’t think the Islanders won’t be Islanders because they’re moving to Brooklyn. That’s still part of Long Island, despite the colloquial use of Long Island referring to anything east of the five boroughs.

4. Dallas Mavericks

There’s an M on the forehead of the horse, presumably for “Mavericks,” but you can never know with Mark, capital M, Cuban.

5. George Washington

Try and find it. It’s one of those hidden details that takes a second to see even when you know about it. Give up?

(GIF via GW blog)

6. Washington Capitals

Do you see the Capitol building formed under the head of the eagle? Is that the Washington Monument shaded in blue above it? (Maybe, maybe not.) Apparently, hiding national landmarks in logos is a staple of D.C.-based sports teams. (Well, that and not winning championships.)

7. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is no longer with us, lost to the ages like other defunct athletic sponsorships such as the Brut Sun Bowl, the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl, the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented By Bridgestone and that time Kim Kardashian sponsored a racecar. But during the game’s long history or during any tortilla-based snacking you’ve ever had, have you noticed that the two T’s in “Tostitos” are sharing a bowl of salsa made by the dot on the I?

8. Arizona Diamondbacks

One of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ two alternate logos (yes, a team that isn’t old enough to legally drink has three logos) has a D and a B forming the head of a diamondback snake. There’s a little tongue at the bottom, which sort of ruins the subtlety.

9. College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff has a logo that evokes the excitement of its name. In other words, it’s tremendously boring. The only flourish is the four laces representing the four teams that will compete in the mini-tournament. On the bright side, this design should easily accommodate an expansion to an eight-team playoff, but it could prove unwieldy when the football folks inevitably get greedy and increase the field to 68 teams like the basketball guys.

10. Oregon

The outside of the O is in the shape of Autzen Stadium, the school’s less-iconic football field.

11. Hofstra

In addition to being the name of Hofstra’s sports teams, a pride is also a group of lions forming a social unit. So rather than have one lion in their logo (a Mufasa, if you will), Hofstra has two lions (Mufasa and whatever Mufasa’s wife’s name was, if you will).

12. The Tour de France

This is one of the more obvious ones, but it’s still a fun design element. There’s a cyclist in the logo (created by the letter R in “Tour”) riding a bike (with the back wheel made up of the O in “Tour” and the front wheel made up of the yellow dot that’s totally only there because they needed another wheel). Also, don’t sit down, Tour de France logo cyclist. That U seat looks like it’d hurt.

13. Minnesota Twins

The line underneath the team’s name highlights the letters WIN. Twins Win. They probably stopped there because “except in October” didn’t fit.

14. Missouri Western State

The hidden element in the logo for this small Division II school took me a while to figure out, and by “a while to figure out,” I mean “I stared at it for 30 seconds before giving up and Googling it.” It’s fantastic nonetheless. The Griffon is in the shape of Missouri! Some folks have said the Griffon is looking west to reflect St. Louis’s status as the “Gateway to the West,” but Missouri Western is in St. Joseph’s, a city in the western part of the state, so take that with a grain of salt. Either way, this is very cool.

15. Arkansas Pine Bluff

Hidden letters are the most popular logo tricks. Sometimes, they work brilliantly, like the UAPB written in the mane of the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff golden lion.

16. Washington State Cougars

Sometimes they don’t, like in the Washington State logo, which is supposed to be a cougar made up of the letters WSU, but ends up looking nothing like neither of those things.

17. Chicago Bulls

Did you know there’s red on the tips of the Bulls’ horns? And that the red represents the blood of vanquished opponents? Neither did I. Yet, for some reason, I did know that if you flip the logo upside down, it looks like a robot reading a book on a park bench. Give yourself a minute. You’ll see it.

(Bonus: World Cup logo)

(via Imgur)

Speaking of accidental, the designer of the 2014 World Cup logo probably didn’t intend the rendering of the FIFA World Cup Trophy (the worst trophy in sports) to be an homage to the beloved Internet meme of a frustrated Jean-Luc Picard.

From the “MB” in the Brewers old logo to the Capitol building in the Caps’.

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